Canada - Day 23 - 13th July

Today started with partly cloudy skies which cleared during breakfast. We were off by ferry back to Vancouver today, but we managed to squeeze just one more event out of the lodge.

We went kayaking with the German family, Sarah and Sabatini. We both opted to have single kayaks this time, which was a first for Fiona.

After ten minutes of practice, we were off across the lake to see some more bears. We came a cross the Mother and Baby again but were able to get very close due to the maneuverability of the Kayaks.

After savouring an hour of close bear watching, we headed back to base, seeing a lovely blue king fisher on the way.

Once back on dry land we packed up, checked out and boarded our float plane with the German family for our trip back to Campbell River. We said a breif goodbye to the staff, especially, Bob, Al and Kris (see Bob & Al below).





The weather was just perfect and we had a very gentle trip back, probably helped by the fact that Fiona was co pilot, and a very good one to boot!!



We drove back to the Ferry where we had to queue to check in. We ended up having to wait a couple of hours, eventually catching the 3:10PM ferry back to Vancouver. Again the weather was fantastic for the whole trip. We listened to the on board marine biologist which made the one and a half hour trip fly by. The views of the city from the ferry were stunning!!





We arrived back in Vancouver, on time, drove back to the city and into our hotel.

Tomorrow we fly back to the UK where we hear it has been raining a great deal. We will have most of the day in Vancouver, flying back at 8:30PM.

Canada has been a great place to visit, with just about every kind of kind of geography and experience we could have wanted.

It's hard to single out any one part of the trip. Emerald Lake was amazing but so was everything else. we both want to come back some day. If plans work out, we may be skiing in Banff next March!!

Canada - Day 22 - 12th July

Today started early, 6.30AM. We were up early, as we had three events to enjoy. After a good breakfast, we popped into a boat with Bob, our host, and four other fellow punters.

Bob headed North to the other side of the inlet, where we walked across a small beach and into the forest. This is where our very tame hike began.

We walked through the forest for approximately two hours with Bob pointing out anything and everything that may be of interest. He explained that a couple has actually lived in this area for almost 40 years, living off the land and amongst the bears!! A book has been written about their experiences called "Grizzlies In Their Backyard" by Beth Day (You can buy it on Amazon).

We crossed some very unsteady bridges which they have to rebuild every year as the rain's destroy then every winter. We also came across some very white topped fungi.





We stopped at asmall clearing by the river where Bob handed out Cookies and Sabatini waded into the ice cold river. On the way back to the lodge, we came a cross a huge log boom being dragged by a tug. These log booms are HUGE and quite a sight.





After a very nice lunch in the sun, we headed off for another bear watching trip with Kris. This time we were spoilt by seeming both grizzly and black bears. The grizzly bears were a Mum and Baby again, very cute!!

After a tea and coffee stop (with great cookies), we headed back out to the other side of the inlet to embark on a bear tracking afternoon. This whole trip was quite comical, as every time we stopped the guide got out of the bus, called for bears, clapped her hands, and then gave us the all clear. Our guide took us to a man made, Salmon spawning ground but not before stopping to bag up some bear poo with which she makes paper!!

We saw bear trails, bear pits, where they rest up, very large, fresh, bear prints as well as the man made salmon run where they can encourage spawning and take visitors to see the bears eating the salmon later in the year.

That evening we met up with John, Mary, Sarah, Sabatini and Roydon. Roydon is from New Zealand. They served up some very good ribs and sweet and sour chicken with much improved Canadian wines.

After dinner, we went into the lounge to see a presentation about winter dog sledging in Canada, presented by Kris. He runs these in the winter months and they did look fantastic!!

It was a very enjoyable evening. Most people went off to bed soon after, but John stayed up to watch the sun sink and the moon rise over the inlet. He boiled himself in the Jacuzzi for almost an hour listening to Pink Floyd on his iPod!!

Canada - Day 21 - 11th July

Today began with sparking blue skies and calm winds. We had a quick breakfast and then met the chap who was leading us to the float plane office just out of town.

We arrived at the office and hanger and put most of our clothing in storage. The rest was loaded onto the single engine plane and we were soon on board and ready to go.

The wind was a tad gusty, so the flight to Knight Inlet Lodge was a wee bit bumpy. A small German boy who was next to John began to turn pale and grabbed for the sick bag. The views from the plane were amazing (see pic).



Luckily, we landed just in time!! The Lodge looked amazing in the sunshine and as we landed we saw some bears on the inlet banks.

We were shown to our rooms, quite basic but very in keeping with this "out of the way" place. Each lodge has three bedrooms with a shared lounge which has plenty of seating and a good size log burning fire. Our lodge also had the large hot tub outside, very handy!! They have designed each lodge so that they all have fantastic views of the inlet which enables you to fully appreciate the wonderful sunsets.




We were taken on a wee tour of the resort, given tea/coffee and then given a wee orientation presentation by Bob, a very nice guy. If your interested in this amazing place see: http://www.grizzlytours.com/

The lodge had 2 live in dogs who were really adorable and liked to sit by your table just in case you wanted to part with some of your food. There were also families of swifts and there were 5 babies who left the nest just as we arrived - they were so tame again got some great pic's.




We had not been in the Lodge any longer than half an hour, before we put on our water jackets got into a small boat and went into the inlet to do some bear watching with Al.


The first morning we saw 2 bears brother and sister called Bonnie and Clyde, they are 3 years old but still pretty big. We got pretty close to them, but they don't seem to really notice we are there.

Apparently when the owners of the lodge started they got in bear specialists to advise on the best way for bear and humans to co-exist together and it seems to work - there are now loads of bears in the area.

The 2 bears suddenly became spooked and ran very fast to the other side of the inlet - there was another bear and cub near by, bears don't like to be too close to each other.


When we arrived back for lunch there was a seal sunning itself on the harbour.

We had lunch and then headed off for some more bear watching. This time we saw the mother and baby who had spooked the other bears in the morning. We watched them for about an hour and the small cub came out of the sage grass to play in the water with mum. These grasses are a great source of food at this time of year which is later replaced by adundant berries and Salmon.


We got some fab photo's and video - they just look so cute as the photo's show. Then we saw another bear in the distance who had 3 cubs with her - the guys at the lodge were very excited because this is the first time they had seen the bear and cubs. We also saw a pine martin, deer and blue kingfisher and numerous other birds.



We headed back to the lodge and had afternoon tea, then headed out again on a 3 hour trip much further up the inlet with Bob and Al, our guides. We saw a black bear eating mussels and cockles on the rocks just by the water - the black bears have much smoother and silkier hair than the grizzly's we saw on the previous trips.



The views up the inlet were stunning - the rocks are granite and the colours in the sun were like something from an art gallery. We stopped at an area where logging had taken place and the logs were all piled up in stacks on the water ready to be taken to the mills - about $2million Canadian dollars worth.

We then got taken to a very spectacular water fall and the boat went under the main flow so we all got extremely wet but all good fun.

During the trip we saw dolphins which loved to follow the wake of the boat - there were loads of them and we were the first boat trip to see them that day.



We got back at 18:00 for pre-dinner drinks. The weather was brill so we sat on the restaurant outside deck admiring the amazing views. We met some really nice people on the trip - John and Mary from Esher and Sarah and her son Sabotini, who live in Sunningdale, near Windsor. Sarah is a publisher for a wine magazine. The magazine, called Fine Wines, is known for it's excellent advise about everything winey!!


We had a really nice meal (the food here is good and wholesome), then one of the guides gives a presentation on a subject of his choice - this night Al (he was in the Canadian Air force for 25 years doing search and rescue) did his pitch on search and rescue which was very interesting.

After that we headed back to our cabin and there on our balcony were 3 otters playing - again the camera and video were required to capture all this.



A great day in a very special place.